Safe Speed Forums

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Misleading Casualty Reduction Claims
To: SPA@surrey.pnn.police.uk

I recently received a flyer that accompanied my council tax bill which claimed that Surrey Police had reduced Road Casualties by 10% based on the Killed and seriously Injury Statistics for 2005.

After a little research I concluded that this is a grossly misleading claim that fails to take into account the long term average trend. In addition the 2005 Casualty Data has not yet been published so members of the public cannot verify your claim.

Do you think it would not have been appropriate to provide a reference to where the 2005 data is or to point out that fatalities actually increased 15% between 2003 and 2004, so a 10% drop still sees us above the 2003 stats and 25% over the 2001 figures

If you look at the published data for Surrey:
http://www.surrey-safecam.org/fe/defaul ... 1=11&n2=27
it paints a quite different picture

I understand the need to ‘sex’ up your performance given the tax hike, but the Police above all need to avoid bending or selectively publishing their performance facts. Lastly its no wonder the stats aren’t improving given that speed limit enforcement and limit reduction accounts for >90% of activity yet Speeding (according to the DfT) only accounts for <5% of accidents.

It would be reassuring to know that the Police Authority is independent from the kind of government spin peddled by speed camera partnerships and reflect the facts as they are rather than as they suit.

see members only for the response - a small victory